Elsa Then, 'Cosmetologist', Convicted In Silicone-Injection Homicide Of Fiordaliza Pichardo

An unlicensed cosmetologist was convicted Thursday of criminally negligent homicide for incorrectly injecting silicone into the rear-end and legs of a Bronx mother.

Elsa Then, 58, who ran an illegal cosmetology practice catering to Hispanic women, administered the fatal injection to 47-year-old Fiordaliza Pichardo on March 16, 2009. Pichardo, of the Bronx, died the next day of a silicone embolism in her lungs.

The New York Daily News reports Pichardo's daughter, Marinez Rodriguez, was present during the botched operation and testified in court that "[Then] was injecting my mother and my mother was in pain," adding, "She used a piece of Bounty paper with Krazy Glue to seal the injection site, and she actually asked me to help."

At first doctors treating Pichardo thought she had pneumonia. An autopsy later revealed, however, that the direct injection of silicone had caused the substance to travel through her bloodstream into her lungs.

Then fled to the Dominican Republic after the incident and was arrested a year later. She faces up to four years in prison at her sentencing next month and has been released on $10,000 bail.